The National Health Information Sharing & Analysis Center (NH-ISAC), and the Center for Internet Security (CIS) today announced a strategic partnership that further strengthens and advances national healthcare and public health cybersecurity resilience.

This landmark partnership will enhance health sector cyber security by leveraging the strengths of the NH-ISAC, CIS and the Multi-State ISAC, which is coordinated by CIS and serves state, local, tribal and terroritorial governments. The collaboration will faciliate improved situational awareness information sharing supported by the NH-ISAC National Health Cybersecurity Intelligence Platform, automating cybersecurity “actionable” threat intelligence, with STIX™ and TAXII™interoperability, powered by Soltra-Edge and Vorstack.

The NH-ISAC, through its Global Situational Awareness Center (GSAC) at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, and CIS, through its Integrated Intelligence Center (IIC) near Albany, New York, are collaborating to support 24/7/365 cybersecurity intelligence operations including security situational awareness intelligence, two-way information sharing and coordinated response.

The partnership also includes leveraging the Medical Device Security Benchmark Mapping Guidance, developed by CIS, NH-ISAC, the Medical Device Innovation, Safety and Security Consortium (MDISS) and other strategic allies to work with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Health Care and Public Health Sector (HPH) stakeholders to support the adaptation of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) “Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity.” The efforts will encourage management of medical device cybersecurity risks and the FDA/NH-ISAC Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) implementing the Medical Device Vulnerability Information Sharing mechanism.

Deborah Kobza, Founder and Executive Director/CEO of the NH-ISAC commented: “The cyber threat landscape requires trusted and collaborative partnerships among all critical infrastructure owners and operators, and security partners via the nation’s ISAC infrastucture. By integrating actionable threat intelligence, and providing access to security best practices and supporting tools to which a sole organization might not have access to, we proactively strengthen cyber resilience by sharing intelligence, expertise, and investments.”

William Pelgrin, CEO of the Center for Internet Security, and Founder and Chair of the Multi-State ISAC commented: “The need for collaboration across sectors has never been more important as we address the cyber challenges facing our critical infrastructure. I am pleased to work with the National Health ISAC in this creative information sharing partnership to help them further strengthen their defenses against cyber attack and facilitate significant improvements to our collective situational awareness and response capabilities.”

Jim Routh, Chief Information Security Officer of Aetna commented: “The Center for Internet Security has an established track record of providing support to ISACs across the country and the NH-ISAC is pleased with the opportunity to work with CIS as a strategic partner to provide new operational support services for members over the next several years.”

Jeanie M. Larson, Associate Information Security Officer of Stanford Healthcare commented: “This agreement between NH-ISAC and the Center for Internet Security is an important step in providing the kinds of security services and cyber threat information sharing that health care organizations need. This kind of collaboration and access to the best cyber threat information is imperative to help us protect against sophisticated cyber attacks and raises the bar for best practices across the industry.”

NH-ISAC and the Center for Internet Security will be holding a webinar Thursday, February 5, 2015 at 2:00 PM EST - NH-ISAC / CIS Landmark Partnership Supporting National Healthcare and Public Health Cybersecurity Resilience

About the National Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center
The National Health Information Sharing & Analysis Center (NH-ISAC) enables and preserves the public trust by advancing health sector cybersecurity and the ability to prepare for and respond to cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities. NH-ISAC is the health sector’s communication channel for cybersecurity situational awareness, information sharing and coordinated response. NH-ISAC possesses the only real-time, standards-based Cyber Threat Intelligence Repository automating security threat indicator information sharing for the nation’s healthcare and public health critical infrastructure. NH-ISAC is the nationally recognized Information Sharing & Analysis Center for the nation’s healthcare and public health critical infrastructure by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), HHS Healthcare and Public Health (HPH) Security Coordinating Council (SCC) comprised of private-sector health sector representatives, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the National Council of ISACs, representing all critical infrastructure ISACs. http://www.nhisac.org.

About the Center for Internet Security
CIS is an internationally recognized nonprofit organization that helps entities in the public and private sectors improve their cyber security readiness and response. Through its 24/7/365 security operations center, CIS issues early warning notifications, conducts risk analysis and mitigation and provides incident response. CIS collaborates with other government, law enforcement and industry organizations to maintain a comprehensive view of the ever-evolving cyber threat landscape, and has full-time staff on the floor of the National Cybersecurity & Communications Integration Center (NCCIC), the federal government’s 24/7 watch and warning center. Visit CIS online at http://www.cisecurity.org